


I am in Them (and that is eternity)

by Crazyjayblue



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-16
Updated: 2012-08-16
Packaged: 2017-11-12 05:59:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/487506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazyjayblue/pseuds/Crazyjayblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am so sorry for this. I have no clue what is wrong with me.</p></blockquote>





	I am in Them (and that is eternity)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MetaAllu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetaAllu/gifts).



“From my rotting body, flowers shall grow, and I am in them, and that is eternity.” - Edvard Munch

Rain falls on Gotham, as it does for two hundred of the three hundred and sixty five days of the year. A flash of lightning illuminates the narrows, thunder shakes the walls, and the leak in the roof drips steadily onto the moldy carpet in Jason Todd's apartment.

The electricity is out, but he can still see the bloodstains on the couch, pooling on the floor and trailing to the bathroom. There are two people in the whole wide world who would leave those stains here.

He takes careful steps, his heartbeat steady as ever but loud in his ears. He opens the door, flips the switch; it doesn't work, but he leaves it on. It’s just a habit, he can see clearly in the dark what he was hoping not to find, curled still in the rusted bathtub. 

Hey, I've got a joke for you. What's black, and blue, and red all over?

“Greyson, get up.”

Dick doesn't stir. His chest may be rising and falling, but if it does, it occurs with imperceptible slowness, determined finality. It's a trick of the light. (They stutter on with a blink and a shower of sparks.) Life is an illusion.

Panic does not wrap its fingers, icy, around his throat; and terrified screams do not echo off the bathroom tiles. He does not cry, dissolve, or even pause. It does not feel like grief, it feels like freedom from that solemn, disappointed look, and like the wire's been cut on his last line to humanity. It feels like alone.

Jason remembers that he is standing, before he goes to his knees, and takes Dick's hand. Swift, reassuring. He lets go quickly, like he would if Richard were breathing, but no one is watching. He calls Bruce, and he's glad they have a code for this, or else he wouldn't know what to say.

Bruce takes care of things. Jason sits on the rusted toilet seat. “It was uncharacteristically considerate of him to die in the bathtub. He's so much easier to clean up this way.” And the look Bruce gives him is not even hurt or angry, it understands, and that's when he finally chokes.

This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. -T.S. Elliot

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry for this. I have no clue what is wrong with me.


End file.
